Chapter 17 #3
Hudson leaned close to me and dropped his voice. “When he says ‘Hudson and I,’ he means he was the one who handed me the wrenches.”
“You like to do that then, huh?” I asked him. “Fix stuff up? You said you were helping your cousin fix up a van.”
“My friends appreciate the free labor.”
I laughed lightly, watching as Simon flicked on his headlights and Derrick followed suit.
It was true I’d never been on an ATV before.
We lived in the middle of the city, so it made no sense for us to get one, and I’d never even met someone who owned one.
My curiosity was piqued as I eyed the thing, though, and I found myself climbing to my feet to get a better look.
Simon hopped off his seat and told Hudson he could have the first turn, which the Grim Reaper took.
And in that moment, with the moonlight shining down and the bonfire casting an orange tint over him, the nickname suited him.
He looked like a grim reaper on his steed, features in their relaxed, stoic mask.
He stretched one hand out to me, palm up. “You riding with me?”
I stared at him like an idiot. Ride with him.
With Hudson. Joining the Grim Reaper on the ATV and riding around in the night.
No, that wasn’t what my brain snagged on—it was the fact that I would be squeezed in that small sliver of the seat behind him.
Pressed up close. The idea of it made my mouth run dry.
“I’m not really wearing the right bottoms for it,” I said, but even still, I took one step forward.
“I won’t look.”
Feeling magnetized toward him, I took another step forward toward the machine, toward him. “Live a little, right?”
Hudson tipped his head playfully. “Only if you want to.”
“Hey, maybe she wants to ride with me,” Derrick said, revving his engine a little and waggling his eyebrows.
“She’s with me,” Hudson replied without missing a beat, gaze intensifying. “Right, Gem?”
As our gazes met, I realized another thing—it wasn’t the word freedom that would be etched on my heart forever when I thought of this night. Another word would be there as well. A name. Hudson. I’d always link the feeling from tonight to the word freedom and the name Hudson.
And it was then that another truth hit me. I thought I only liked the way Hudson made me feel. Now, though, with the way my heart was racing fast, I wondered if I liked something else.
Always, I thought to Hudson, wondering if it showed on my face, wondering why I didn’t care whether or not it did. In the end, I placed my hand in Hudson’s, letting him help me on.
He was true to his word and didn’t look as I climbed on behind him.
He kept his face toward the front as I hitched a leg over the bike and then tucked the fabric underneath my thigh so it hugged tighter to me.
Though the cold air flushed my skin, if someone would’ve told me that it was the middle of July with my pale knees near Hudson’s hips, I would’ve believed them.
“What made you think about doing this?” I asked him, leaning close to be heard around the engine.
“I feel like any rebellion list needs something like ‘ride a motorcycle’ or ‘ride a dirt bike,’” he replied, speaking over his shoulder. “We don’t have motorcycles or dirt bikes, but we do have ATVs.”
It was a good substitute. It would’ve taken a whole lot more coercion to get me on the back of a motorcycle.
I rested my hands hesitantly at his sides, lightly enough that I couldn’t really feel anything behind the thick material of Hudson’s sweater.
His head tilted down, and a second later, his hands wrapped around my own, their warmth stealing the chill that’d formed across my knuckles.
He tugged my arms around his waist completely, drawing them like a buckle around him, tugging me flush to his body.
“You’ll have to hold on tight,” he said without a trace of hesitancy.
“If we hit a pothole, you don’t want to fall off. ”
“Right,” I said with a voice as quivering as could be, clearing my throat as if it’d make it any less obvious.
Derrick shot a look at Tee that I barely caught, one that included a little smirk and another wiggle of his eyebrows.
It made my face flame hotter. “You ready?” he asked Hudson, pulling his ATV up beside us.
Our headlights mingled to illuminate the path before us, giving a clear view of the shadowy potholes and dips.
He revved his engine again. “First to the end of the driveway and back wins?”
“Deal,” Hudson agreed, leaning forward over the handlebars. My heart kicked up faster in my chest. “You holding on tight, Gem?”
I nodded, my chin brushing against his back.
“Three,” Derrick called over the noise, grinning.
“Two,” Hudson said, the one word reverberating in his chest.
“One,” Derrick said, but as soon as he spoke, Hudson pressed something on the handlebars, propelling us forward in a sharp, jarring movement. Without thinking, I clutched him tighter, pressing my hands against the muscles that I could feel even through his sweater.
And we were off. The headlights were dull on the four-wheeler, and a bit foggy from disuse, but they still illuminated where each pothole was, and Hudson swerved around them skillfully.
The air tore at my hair and pulled it behind me like a wave, and it’d probably be a tangled mess later—a tangled mess Mom would no doubt ream me out for—but now, I couldn’t think beyond this moment.
Hudson jerked the handlebars to the right, swerving away from a pothole before the tire could fall into it, and I squeezed tighter to him.
As hesitant as ever, I leaned my head against Hudson’s back, my cheek fitting perfectly between his shoulder blades.
His sweater was soft against my face, smelling like him and traces of the bonfire, and I inhaled deeply.
Derrick was hot on our heels, though when I turned back, I found his headlights bouncing from slamming into the potholes, not bothering to maneuver around them.
This was by far the most fun thing I’d ever done.
More fun than seeing the scary movie and watching Hudson jump at the scares, and more fun than shouting a curse word in the counselor’s office.
It wasn’t even something that was on my rebellion list, riding an ATV, but I instantly knew it should’ve been. And he knew. Hudson just knew.
“You good?” Hudson shouted as we sped toward the bonfire, the corn passing by us in a haze.
I risked reaching up to rub my eye, scrubbing away the wetness that blurred my vision, and nodded against his back. “Yeah,” I called, settling deeper against him, allowing myself to smile. “I’m great.”